This week’s best stories

Saturday Jul 13

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This week we kicked off a brand new series — Where to for real Liberals? — in which writers from across the political spectrum consider the future of the Liberal Party under Peter Dutton.

Elsewhere we took stock of global politics, debated whether Labor should ditch its caucus rules, and reported on the deadly state of affairs for journalists in Indonesia.

Plus why did Facebook block a Crikey story?

We hope you’re having a wonderful weekend.

Gina Rushton,
Editor

Think identity politics is a problem for Labor? Wait ’til you see the Republicans

BERNARD KEANE

Identity politics isn't confined to the left. In fact it's everywhere, driven by the dominance of market economics.

Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese (Images: AP, AAP)

Deadly blaze at reporter’s home highlights danger faced by journalists in Indonesia

ANTON NILSSON

There were 89 attacks against Indonesian journalists in 2023 alone.

Rico Sempurna Pasaribu, an Indonesian journalist who was killed along with three of his family members in an arson attack (Image: Facebook/Rico Sempurna Pasaribu)

Peter Dutton’s nuclear push makes sense in the modern Liberal Party

JONATHAN COLE

To conservatives and libertarians alike, the 'moderates' of the Liberal Party appear to be unprincipled shills virtually indistinguishable from the modern Labor Party.

(Image: Private Media/Zennie)

From broad church to narrow cult: Peter Dutton’s ‘Hansonisation’ of the Liberal Party

MARK KENNY

The Liberal Party has fully embraced the divisive right-wing populism past leaders worried would destroy it.

(Image: Private Media/Zennie)

Dutton doesn’t realise importing US politics means the death of the Liberal Party

JUDITH BRETT

As the Liberal Party has moved to the right, compulsory preferential voting has enabled the moderate centre it once represented to find new candidates.

(Image: Private Media/Zennie)

Jillian Segal is an envoy for Israel, banking misconduct, and not much else

BERNARD KEANE

Jillian Segal has criticised ceasefire calls in Gaza and defended bombing hospitals. That, and her record at NAB, makes her a poor choice for a government role.

Incoming antisemitism envoy and past president of Executive Council of Australian Jewry Jillian Segal (Image: AAP/Dean Lewins)

Why are Cheng Lei’s shades of grey not newsworthy?

WANNING SUN

Sometimes a good clue to our media’s mindset is not what they tell us, but what they do not.

Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)

At the heart of the Payman pile-on lies a fundamental failure of imagination

GUY RUNDLE

Did Labor force Fatima Payman out as part of some broader political strategy? Or was it just plain old incomprehension and incompetence?

Fatima Payman and Anthony Albanese (Image: Private Media/Zennie)

Facebook won’t block ads for deepfake nude apps but it did block my article about them

CAM WILSON

Meta decided a Crikey article about its deepfake nude app problem qualified as spam.

Meta's explanation for deleting a Facebook post sharing a Crikey story (Image: Supplied)

Yes, Labor should ditch its caucus rules — if it wants to avoid becoming a shrinking cult

RACHEL WITHERS

Arguing for the affirmative in this week's Friday Fight: columnist Rachel Withers.

(Image: Private Media/Zennie)

No, Labor shouldn’t ditch its caucus rules — they’re compromised and collectivist but more democratic

BERNARD KEANE

Arguing for the negative in this week's Friday Fight: Crikey's political editor Bernard Keane.

Bernard Keane (Image: Private Media/Zennie)

We’re beyond the culture wars now people, and it all kicked off with big inflatable baby Trump

GUY RUNDLE

Donald Trump started it. Boris Johnson gave it a red-hot go. Now the Coalition is having a crack. Across the Anglosphere, right-wing leaders are playing with traditional ideology in pursuit of working- and middle-class voters.

Donald Trump and Boris Johnson (Image: AP/Peter Nicholls)

Dutton panics over ‘Muslim candidates’. But our parliaments are designed to be hung

RACHEL WITHERS

Power-sharing is a standard part of parliamentary democracy. It’s time the major parties started acting like it.

L-R: Zoe Daniel, Bob Katter, Monique Ryan, Peter Dutton, Max Chandler-Mather and Dai Le (Images: AAP/Private Media/Zennie)

‘The will of the people’: OzBargain users keep hacking KFC for cheap chicken

CAM WILSON

Crikey takes you inside the cat-and-mouse game between the Colonel and Australia's hungriest online deal hunters.

(Image: Private Media)

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